Conscious Marketing: It’s Time for a Revolution

When I applied to my first job as a brand manager, I explained to my younger brother what the job entailed. He clarified, “So you’re telling me that you’re going to manipulate people into buying things they don’t want?”

His shrewd observation provoked me to ask my interviewer the very same question the following day (bold 22 year old that I was!) to assure myself I was not making a bad career choice. The interviewer responded, “People are smart and know what they want. They only buy things that they value and need.” His answer satisfied me for the time being, and so I began my career in brand management.

But my brother’s question has lingered in my mind throughout my career. Have I ever manipulated people into buying things? Am I giving my customers full information to make an informed decision? Do my messages and content improve their lives?

This personal journey has recently led me to explore “conscious marketing.”

What is Conscious Marketing?

There are a growing number of conscious movements discontent with the status quo, seeking a new way to operate: conscious capitalism, conscious consumerism, conscious travel, and conscious fashion are just a handful of examples.

I define this business-focused idea of “conscious” as: “Heightened awareness of impact, accompanied by purposeful action.” We can apply this definition to marketing:

According to this definition, I don’t think we are fully “conscious” yet within the world of marketing and brand management. We don’t always understand the impacts of our approaches which prevents us from taking purposeful action to maximize good and minimize harm.

The first step toward becoming more conscious is to evaluate marketing and branding’s positive and negative impacts:

On the positive side: Brands and marketing connect people to goods and services that improve their lives, and they can also be a source of inspiration, education, transformation, and creativity at both an individual and communal level.

On the negative side: Brands and marketing have the potential to harm to our customer and our culture through manipulation, unsustainable consumption, and by establishing unhealthy or unrealistic cultural norms.

We often assume that marketing or brand communications are neutral, but they are not. Words and images, and the channels through which they are delivered, have the power to build up or to tear down, and we need to reflect on the medium, the methods, and the message we use to achieve our sales objectives.

The power of marketing and branding to influence culture is undeniable. The sheer volume of content and spending dedicated to putting messages, images, and products in front of people presents a tremendous opportunity to impact the world for the good. An opportunity that, unfortunately, is often squandered.

Is Today’s Marketing Effective?

Let’s examine a few facts that should make us question whether today’s branding and marketing approaches are effective:

Only 34% of customers trust the brands they use, ranking quality, value for money and transparency as the top drivers of trust.
Advertising makes up 36% of all world spam content, totaling 44 billion emails per day.
81% of Americans believe businesses are not transparent in how they use personal information shared by consumers, who often become the product for advertising and lead generation.
Nearly 43% of customers use ad blockers, citing too many ads and intrusive ads as top reasons.

How did we get to this point?

My hypothesis is that we’ve accepted and normalized a set of practices and principles that we believe is “time tested”—and required—to grow business. Here are a few examples:

Using wealth and idealized beauty to create an aspirational lifestyle that is unattainable for our everyday customer.
Applying knowledge of brain science to modify our communications and increase its subconscious influence.
Following customers around the internet, capturing their data without their knowledge.
Maximizing the number of messages we distribute to "stand out" and "break through the clutter," even when they are unwanted by the recipients.
Exaggerating benefits, even if we are legally compliant and technically accurate, which results in misleading our customers.
Reinforcing customers insecurities and fears to create demand for our products and services.

Most brand leaders don’t intend to mislead or put their own interests ahead of the customers’. I, too, have used and benefited from many of these practices over the past two decades. I often feel like I’m operating in a system that is out of my control—it’s simply the way things work.

With an aspiration to positively impact the world, I find it’s essential to revaluate the methods I use to define what brands stand for and attract customers. We need more purposeful approaches to understand meaningful customer needs, develop messages that create value, offer pricing that is fair and transparent, and reach our audience with respect on their terms.

Conscious Marketing Practices: A Starting Point

Here are a few ideas to transform common marketing practices. We know that trust, transparency, integrity, and relevancy are the foundation of a strong and enduring brand, but it takes vigilance avoid defaulting to the norm.

Examples to Inspire Us

There are many brands to learn from who are doing this well today. Brands not just evolving their business models but the ways in which they communicate who they are and what value they offer to customers.

REI has closed on Black Friday since 2015 for its Opt Outside campaign, encouraging both consumers and employees to spend the day outside.
Dove and Aerie do not retouch or digitally enhance the models in their advertising.
Apparel brand The Slow Label publishes what it costs to make each one of its products, so that the margin is fully transparent.
Eileen Fisher and Patagonia have blogs are dedicated to educating customers on issues of sustainability, ethical fashion, and reducing product waste which complement their sustainably sourced materials and circular product offerings.

These practices are not necessarily the right ones for every business, but we can seek to understand the consequences of our marketing and branding choices and ask whether there's a better way.

We Can Learn Together

My view is that of a practitioner, not an academic or a journalist, so I understand that conscious marketing approaches must build the business.

I intend to write more about brain science, pricing, digital marketing, brand purpose and mission, sustainability, transparency, and advertising. In doing so, I will share strategies and methods that both grow revenue and respect our customers. Practices that expand market share and profitability without pushing products on customers who don’t want them. Messages that advocate for a more sustainable and ethical system and incentivize behavior toward positive change.

I welcome your ideas, your case studies, your do’s and don’ts. Please share examples of companies you see doing this well, so we can learn together. My hope is that collectively, we create a better way to grow, where branding and marketing are no longer part of the problem but part of the solution.